Heat exchangers are commonly used in clubs, bars, hotels and other venues to chill beverages, typically, from a temperature of around 20° to 30° C. to around 0° C. for sale to patrons. Such heat exchangers are usually installed under a traditional bench or bar top.
Existing technology for cooling beverages, such as beer, prior to dispensing from a tap, tends to be relatively large and consequently, rather expensive. Many of the larger cooling installations are set up to chill numerous lines of beer prior to dispensing it from one of a number of taps, but also typically chill a number of glass cabinets for pre-chilling the glasses into which beverages are dispensed.
There is a need for a low cost compact system for dispensing beverages for smaller venues such as restaurants which may sell only one or two different beverages and will only require one or more chilling and dispensing lines. The existing installations which are used in pubs, clubs and hotels are all too large and expensive.
One further problem with dispensing beverages, such as beer from a tap, is that the beverage companies such as brewers and soft drink manufacturers, often require their beverages to be dispensed at a particular temperature or within a particular range of temperatures. For example beers, are typically required to be sold at a temperature of between 2 and 4° C. inside the glass which means that the beer has be dispensed from the tap in a hotel at around 0.5 to 1° C. to allow for the heat capacity of the glass which will typically be at a temperature of greater than 4° C. The dispensing temperature of 0.5 to 1° C. is approaching the freezing temperature for beer and if a beer tap is little used and the beer over chilled, there is a risk that the beer will freeze in the pipes of the dispensing apparatus. At the same time, the dispensing apparatus must be sufficiently efficient to be able to dispense beer at the correct temperature as prescribed by the beverage company and on demand.
The present invention aims to address or alleviate at least some of the problems of the prior art discussed above.
The present invention also aims to apply any solutions to the problems discussed above to other fields where heat exchangers are or may be utilised.
Any discussion of documents, act, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.